This invention relates generally to fire escapes for an individual's use in evacuating a multiple story building or ship or aircraft on the ground in an emergency situation.
Conventional fire escapes have disadvantages. They are generally finite in number, e.g. one or two per floor in a given building, if provided at all, and fixed in place so that, if smoke and flame approach a lower part of such fire escape, it is useless to persons on floors above that lower part.
As was apparent in the fires at the MGM Grand Hotel in 1980 and the Las Vegas Hilton hotel in 1981, present modern fire escapes are inadequate. In the MGM fire, at least 84 persons died. In the Hilton fire, 8 persons died. In both, helicopters having rescue seats suspended by cables from the aircraft were used to rescue persons from the roofs of the buildings and, in some instances, from balconies and windows. While these rescue efforts saved some lives, this method is very time consuming and terrifying to the inexperienced person being rescued.
Many prior art devices are known which relate to chutes or tubes for use in escaping high-rise buildings in the event of a fire. Exemplary of such devices are those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,240,520 (1980) and 4,099,596 (1978).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,520 discloses a fire escape tunnel for use in exiting high-rise buildings. The tunnel includes an extendable, accordian-pleated tubing made of nylon or canvas fabric padded on its inner side, a ring at its upper end attachable to an escape opening of a building, a lower end of the tubing having a soft landing pad, and an exit doorway so a person sliding or being lowered down the tunnel can step out onto the ground at the exit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,596 discloses a device including a normally-folded flexible tube with a landing pad at its lower end that unfolds to a vertical chute condition, the interior of the tube being slippery to provide against snagging and the like, the unfolded tube being formed with elastic restrictions at successive vertical levels that snub the descent of a person descending inside from free fall to an alleged safe speed.
The present invention overcomes the many disadvantages inherent in these prior fire escapes.